I knew he was there to kill me. – the woman who stopped Neal Falls
I’ve written a number of times about “NHI” (“No Humans Involved“), the informal police policy that (in the absence of some sort of public outcry) violence against sex workers is to be ignored and left uninvestigated. Even a serial killer preying on whores is usually allowed to continue the slaughter unimpeded by police action unless he mistakenly includes an amateur in his spree, and even then you can be sure the cops are going to let everyone know that the reason they’re taking action is to protect the “good” women and not the harlots. Sometimes, the cops even go as far as to deny that there’s a serial killer in the first place, to cover up for him or to announce more persecution of potential victims, just so everyone knows they’re no friends of dirty whores. So generally, the killing will continue until the murderer widens his appetites to include amateurs, or the cops catch him for something else (and then pretend it was part of their “investigation”), or he stops on his own, or someone else takes him out. Remember the serial killer operating in Chillicothe, Ohio? Well, he was stopped in nearby Charleston, West Virginia, by a woman he tried to add to his tally:
Neal Falls, the man shot to death by a prostitute after he attacked her on Saturday, had a cache of weapons and a list of online escorts inside his vehicle…police…suspect he may have been involved in other unsolved crimes. “He had a machete, shovel, two axes, a bunch of knives, a double-headed ax, a bulletproof vest, numerous sets of handcuffs, as well as the firearm used to kill him,” [said] Lt. Steve Cooper of the Charleston, West Virginia, police…”Nearly immediately after he stepped into her apartment, he said ‘live or die’ and a struggle ensued,” Cooper said. “[Falls] laid his gun on a counter so that he could get a firmer grip around the victim’s throat with both his hands and she was able to scoop that weapon up and fire one round, killing Mr. Falls.” The escort, who has not been identified, was hospitalized with multiple injuries, including broken vertebrae. Authorities have determined the shooting was a justifiable homicide…
The Daily Dot had more detail:
When Falls began to strangle her, she…reached for a nearby rake. Falls put down his gun to try and wrestle the rake out of her hands—that’s when she grabbed the gun and shot him. Falls died from the gunshot wound, and she ran outside to get help…police…found an extensive “kill kit” in the trunk of Falls’s Subaru…[including] knives, a shovel, a machete, several axes, a sledgehammer, a pair of hiking boots covered in dirt, trash bags, and cleaning supplies. In Falls’s pocket, said police, they found a list of names of future targets: all sex workers who advertised on Backpage. Police have not released the names, or the exact number, of women on the list…Falls…previously worked as a security guard in Oregon, and may have been living “off the grid” out of his car…
Besides the murders in Chillicothe, he may have committed four in Las Vegas:
…according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal…Falls…has been linked to the deaths of four young women: Lindsay Harris, 21, Jodi Brewer, 19, Jessica Foster 21, and Misty Saens, 25…Harris, Brewer and Saens…were found dead near highways. Foster has yet to be located…
Maybe, or perhaps cops in various parts of the country are just going to try to pin unsolved murders of sex workers on Falls so they don’t have to waste their time on “NHI” crimes; after all, time spent investigating violence against whores is time they can’t spend harassing, raping, robbing or brutalizing us. One has to have priorities, after all. But for now, the as-yet-unnamed sex worker is a heroine to her sisters all over the US, and if she reads this I ask that she let us show our gratitude to and solidarity with her. She’s an inspiration to all of us, and I hope the next sex worker to be threatened by a monster like Falls is able to follow her example and do for herself and the rest of us what the cops can’t and won’t.
I’m glad you included the last para. That’s precisely what I thought when I heard the list of unsolved killings they were trying to link Falls to.
I agree the woman was heroic, but as with most heroism there was a big component of luck. According to this account she fired randomly behind her back and got him (though there’s probably good legal reasons to say that regardless of the truth). I sure wouldn’t be urging the sisterhood to follow her example. Just getting away (or avoiding such situations entirely) is heroic enough.
One thing I would urge sex work activists to do though is to try to ensure the exposure resulting from her actions doesn’t result in police persecution further down the track when the media circus has moved on. Piggie-wigs don’t like to be shown up. And they don’t like whores.
I’ve been waiting for an opening like this to ask the following question for some time now: why haven’t more sex workers taken to arming themselves like our unknown heroine here? I recognize that the intimate nature of the work probably precludes firearms most of the time, but guns aren’t the only weapon that can be used, and they can probably be used with more skill and adeptness.
Perhaps if more men who think sex workers are easy marks started turning up dead before they had a chance to become serial killers, maybe that whole “helpless victim” perception would actually begin to change among the public at large.
Because cops.
Because people can use your weapon on you.
Because despite rare incidences of the sort of thing that happened to Fall,
real life is not scripted by a Hollywood screenwriter.
When you’re under threat of arrest for carrying too many condoms in your purse, there’s probably a certain level of provocation involved in supplementing with a firearm or even a non-firearm weapon.
Then I give up. Whores don’t carry (or at least know how to use) weapons, they get killed. Whores do carry weapons, they get killed. The world is a war with whores, so why aren’t whores at war with the world?
And in the end everyone’s dead.
I think the real objective is to reduce the rate at which people get killed.
Decriminalisation will make it easier for whores to take fewer risks and seek help when threatened.
Destigmatisation will probably reduce the number of people who think it’s always open season on whores.
Gun control will make it less likely that when the shit hits the fan bodies will hit the floor.
I agree that the real objective is to reduce the rate at which people get killed and believe it or not, I’m in agreement with you with regards to gun control. Indeed, I appreciate being able to inspire others (it doesn’t happen often) and the example you use below is one I’ve used myself when I discuss the topic.
However, I’m trying to strike the balance between pragmatism and idealism here. There is approximately zero chance in the US of effective gun control becoming law at the federal level (and not much more at the state level) right now. Even if it were signed into law tomorrow, the resistance would be massive because, rightly or wrongly, people would think that they are now defenseless against a heavily armed state. Unless the state disarms at the same time the people do, and what are the chances of that happening?
Further, I thought one of the prevailing opinions here is that since we should “never call the police for ANY reason” then that means police have no legitimate reason to exist, even if they weren’t antagonistic toward whores, minorities, people in general, etc. Therefore, people must take their defense into their own hands.
So until governments come to their collective senses and enact decriminalization, why shouldn’t we expect whores to take measures to defend themselves effectively, even up to the point of using deadly force?
I was hoping Maggie would weigh in on this question, since I would be surprised if she didn’t have a plan to incapacitate or even kill the next person that tries to rape or harm her. However, as she is traveling today that probably won’t happen.
I get how much you’ve thought on the topic. And it’s easy to sling shit from down-under because we got gun control happening nearly 20 years ago. The mass shootings stopped and haven’t come back. But the whole gun culture over there seems so incomprehensible, even allowing for the 18th century assumptions in your constitution. The public discourse after another mass shooting sounds more like another planet than the other side of the Pacific. You’ve all prayed a lot but it seems God ain’t listening. Or maybe he’s with the NRA. Like Moses.
As far as getting rid of cops go, I work on the assumption that unless you’ve really fucked up your culture big time the homicidal arseholes are always going to be a tiny minority that the majority can deal with. But if everyone’s lugging assault weapons that could be a very expensive deal.
How to get there from here and what to do in the meantime? I dunno. But I can’t help thinking if you’re that deep in shit maybe it’s time to stop digging. I just can’t see contributing to the arms race is heading in the right direction. If hookers go armed the people who prey on them (including cops) might just respond with quicker and more decisive violence. That’ll make the whores more paranoid and the cycle keeps building.
Yes, it would keep building until either freedom breaks out, or the nukes start falling and the planet can start over again without us.
At least it would [i]start[/i] building. All we have now is a stalemate.
After all, as you said, in the end everyone’s dead.
One thing that seems to be almost completely absent from the discourse about personal weaponry in the US is that if you own a lethal weapon the person it’s most likely to kill is:
1. You
2. Your intimate partner
3. Another housemate – most likely a child
4. Another family member
There’s not really all that much potential for heroics in owning a piece.
But you’re overwhelmingly much more likely to kill or harm absolutely no one, which is exactly as most firearm owners in the US want it.
Err, so what’s the point of paying for a killing machine you have no intention of using (recreational gun owners aside).
I mean, it’s not as if gun ownership has made the US relatively safe from murderers.
Actually thequietman has just inspired my latest blog post (I know you explicitly ruled out firearms tqm – I said inspired not incited).
This fine brave woman was not armed, except with something everyone should have – the determination to NOT simply, passively be killed, but to fight and struggle and do whatever you can.
She grabbed a rake – something to fight with. The psycho idiot, fatally underestimating her, thought he could just SET HIS GUN ON THE TABLE and take the rake from her.
He gave her the opportunity and she used it – grabbing the gun and shooting while fleeing, and by great good fortune not only making her escape but handing the police the perpetrator of this crime and possibly enough physical evidence to connect him to several others.
Some escorts can charge substantially more just because they’ve done a few porn videos. I hope Hero Hooker Heather can turn this into a gold mine, and charge what men who admire American Heroes are glad to pay her. Marvel should make a comic book and movie version of her, the crimebusting SuperHooker. I’d pay to see that, and what a role model for all the young ladies!
I concur completely, though I doubt Marvel would have the stones to do so.
And that is the point: If you behave like a sheep, you automatically become prey. That is just how a significant part of the human race is still wired on their animal-side, and most do not understand that or how to get control of it. Hence all efforts to “contain” the predators are ultimately futile.
However, if there is a real chance you may fight back, your risk is much reduced. Fundamentally most predators are cowards. They go after the weak to reduce their own risk.
Of course, there was quite a bit of luck involved here, but without determination to fight back, all the luck in the world will not help. Well, the attacker could stumble and shoot himself accidentally, but that is not going to happen in reality and it does nothing to shift the perception that you are prey. Fighting back, even unsuccessfully, does.
Well you seem to have some fundamental wiring at work here at least. Reckon you’ll ever learn to control it?
We’re all animals Celos. Even the wankers.
I am not talking to you. You have lost all sense.
I don’t know why you’re ‘talking’ at all. You only seem to have one message and you just repeat it at every opportunity.
1. Most of the population of the world is subhuman.
2. You, OTOH, are an example of homo superior.
3. It’s true because ‘science’.
We’ve all heard that one before Celos. Some of your compatriots went to great lengths to get the message out 70-80 years ago. I know that a couple of them insisted that endlessly repeating it would make people agree, but I think you probably need to change the format occasionally. Otherwise it sounds like you’re only trying to convince yourself.
The article does not mention whether she uses screening or not. One way of reducing the chances of coming across some maniac like she did is to use screening & references.
Arming with a gun or other weapon would only make it easier for the cops to charge someone with much more serious charges than prostitution. Stories like this just show how much more dangerous it is because of criminalization.
Good to see she stopped this guy, no telling how many more women would have been killed if things didn’t end up like they did.
Part of the problem sex workers have is that their work involves, by definition, being alone with men they may not know very well. This makes them easy prey for serial killers. However, the same can be said for real estate saleswomen, and I have read that they have also been targeted.
And getting rid of the guns wouldn’t help. Many serial killers don’t use them. Jack the Ripper could have done his thing just as well if no guns had existed. What a gun can do is put a 98-lb. woman on an equal basis with a 250-lb. man.